Students’ Attitudes Toward Space Pollution: Scale Development and Validity Study

The aim of this study is to develop the “Space Pollution Attitude Scale” to measure attitudes toward space pollution, examine its measurement invariance across genders, and present students’ attitudes regarding this issue. The participants consisted of 618 middle school students from the seventh and eighth grades, from whom data were collected and subsequently divided into two datasets. The first dataset was used to conduct exploratory factor analysis, while the second dataset was employed for confirmatory factor analysis, measurement invariance testing, and assessment of students’ attitudes. The exploratory factor analysis results indicated that the instrument was unidimensional. The data fit the model for confirmatory factor analysis (RMSEA = 0.066, CFI = 0.98, TLI = 0.978, SRMR = 0.06). The ω reliability coefficient for the scale was 0.876, and the α coefficient was 0.875. The scale provided configural, metric, scalar, and strict measurement invariance. Based on the analyses, a valid and reliable scale with 13 items was created to assess seventh -and eighth- grade students’ attitudes toward space pollution. The results regarding students’ attitudes show that female students have significantly greater attitudes than male students. Cite this article as: Uyar, Ş., & Soylu, H. C. (2025). Students’ attitudes toward space pollution: scale development and validity study. HAYEF: Journal of Education, 23, 0046, doi:10.5152/hayef.2026.24046.